David Bathgate studied anthropology and journalism at the Pennsylvania State University in the U.S., earning a doctorate and master's degree, respectively, in those two disciplines.

Thereafter, university teaching and visual journalism followed as parallel career pursuits. First photographing and writing for local magazines and newspapers, David eventually took his co-careers to Australia and worked on photographic projects in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

In 1993 he closed the door on academia to become a full-time visual storyteller, covering social and environmental topics, worldwide.

Today, David is represented by Corbis Images and works regularly in Asia and the Middle East, as well as in Europe, for publications such as Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Geo, Stern, Spiegel, Focus and The London Sunday Times Magazine.

In addition, he regularly conducts workshops and seminars on photography, photojournalism and visual communication in places like Dharamshala, India and Ladakh and at institutions like, Pathshala - South Asian Institute of Photography, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, AINA in Kabul, Afghanistan, the Foundry Photojournalism Workshops and interactively - online - at The Compelling Image.